‘Beside ourselves’: Hospitals remain overcrowded as vaccines arrive at Hamilton schools
It will be weeks before Hamilton's overcrowded hospitals can resume postponed care as they continue to transfer critically ill patients out of the region.
We are just barely meeting the requirements of performing urgent and emergent surgeries," said Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). We are beside ourselves at all of this."
COVID deaths continue to spike, with 10 reported since Feb. 3 to bring the pandemic toll to the grim milestone of 500 fatalities.
As demand for COVID shots plummet, the city is moving away from large clinics.
For the first time in the pandemic, Hamilton public health nurses will give out vaccines during the school day to eligible students with parent approval. They plan to visit every elementary school by March break.
The Centre on Barton vaccine clinic will close at end of day Sunday so its staff can be redeployed to mobile clinics in neighbourhoods with the lowest uptake.
Overall, public health is seeing signs Omicron has peaked - or at least plateaued. The per cent of tests coming back positive dropped to nearly 15 per cent Monday from about 23 per cent on Jan. 18.
Active outbreaks were down to 44 compared to 101 on Jan 14. However, the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre went back into outbreak Feb. 3 after 12 inmates tested positive. It comes less than two weeks after a large outbreak with 82 cases was declared over.
The number of Hamiltonians being admitted to hospital with COVID has declined to eight a day from 10 per day about two weeks ago.
Hamilton's hospitals were caring for 191 COVID patients Monday, including 26 in the intensive care unit (ICU). It compared to a high of 309 on Jan. 17 with 38 in the ICU.
While the numbers are going in the right direction, the hospitals are still significantly strained.
Hamilton continues to be a relative hot spot for COVID in Ontario and we are continuing to see an extraordinarily high demand for hospital care," MacIsaac said at a city briefing Monday.
Severe overcrowding continues, with an occupancy rate of 126 per cent at Juravinski Hospital and 107 per cent at Hamilton General Hospital. The ideal maximum occupancy for hospitals is between 85 per cent to 90 per cent.
The ICU at the Charlton Campus has consistently been at or above 100 per cent occupancy, which means it's full.
The result is four more patients transferred out of the Hamilton, Burlington, Niagara, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk area to bring the total to 31. Most need an ICU bed.
Our ICU capacity is incredibly limited," said Melissa Farrell, president of St. Joseph's Healthcare. The risk ... is that if they're full, the care needs for new patients ... are in essence compromised because of those capacity issues."
Both hospital networks are having trouble keeping up with emergent and urgent surgeries, so won't be resuming paused services now allowed by the province.
The state of hospital care in Hamilton and surrounding region remains highly pressured," said MacIsaac. Frankly, I cannot see ramping up happening in a significant way for at least a few weeks. We need to be confident that we can maintain access to urgent and emergent services."
As well as keeping beds free, the paused care allows hospitals to redeploy staff where they are needed most. In addition, HHS has temporarily closed the West End Clinic urgent care to free up staff and St. Joseph's has reduced the hours at its King Campus urgent care. Both hospital networks closed their vaccine clinics.
We are using the staff we redeployed from those surgical ramp downs to provide care in other parts of the hospital, so we really have little choice," MacIsaac said. Just to be clear the rest of those surgeries - the surgeries that are getting deferred - these are not cosmetic surgeries. These are very important procedures and there is a real toll in human suffering for the folks who are getting surgeries deferred."
It also has consequences for the hospital as patients get sicker while their care is delayed.
We are also seeing the effects of what we think will be a long and lasting COVID hangover," said MacIsaac. Deferred care from the previous ramp downs and people putting off seeking care because of the pandemic are straining local hospitals ... Looking ahead, this will mean more crowded (emergency departments) and hospitals for the foreseeable future."
HHS hired 450 new staff since December to bring its workforce to 13,369. However, it also fired 178 workers over COVID vaccines.
In addition, Hamilton's hospitals still have 318 staff self-isolating - down from 1,032 on Jan. 17.
The truth of the matter is things have been less than ideal," said MacIsaac.
Of Hamilton's ongoing outbreaks, seven were in hospitals. The city has reported one new death in the outbreak at Arbour Creek Care Centre, where 91 have tested positive and five have died. There was also a death at the Wellington Nursing Home, where 81 have been infected and three have died.
Of the most recent deaths, six were among those age 80 and older, three were residents in their 70s and one was a Hamiltonian in their 60s. Hamilton has reported 64 COVID deaths since Jan. 19.
Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com